Abstract
Appearance, concentration, and proportions of pigments in plants, algae, and bacteria are influenced by various factors, such as physical environmental factors, pollutants, or infestation with parasites. As pigments are detectable by means of various methods, those changes can be employed as measures of impairment in ecotoxicology. Heavy metals lead to significant changes in concentrations of chlorophylls and screening pigments accessible e.g., by means of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Because the chloroplasts are well protected inside the cytoplasm, adverse effects of toxicants on pigments of photosynthesis or photosynthetic performance indicate far-reaching impairment of the organism. This chapter provides an overview about factors influencing pigmentation in photosynthetic life forms, with the focal point on heavy metal effects on screening pigments in the freshwater flagellate Euglena gracilis. Other key aspects in this chapter are different promising applications of delayed fluorescence (DF) in ecotoxicology. Toxicants, such as heavy metals and herbicides, induce significant reduction in DF with a sensitivity at least in the range of pulse-amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorescence. DF allows recording of reconstitution of photosynthesis after rehydration of desiccated plants and determination of effectiveness of screening pigments.
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